<?php
/**
 * <https://y.st./>
 * Copyright © 2017 Alex Yst <mailto:copyright@y.st>
 * 
 * This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
 * it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
 * the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
 * (at your option) any later version.
 * 
 * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
 * GNU General Public License for more details.
 * 
 * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
 * along with this program. If not, see <https://www.gnu.org./licenses/>.
**/

$xhtml = array(
	'title' => 'Do I really still need my Discover credit card?',
	'body' => <<<END
<img src="/img/CC_BY-SA_4.0/y.st./weblog/2017/01/30.jpg" alt="The highway off ramp behind my workplace" class="weblog-header-image" width="800" height="480" />
<section id="advertisements">
	<h2>Unsponsored advertisements</h2>
	<p>
		I finally found a way to buy <a href="https://marcwithac.bandcamp.com/album/linda-lovelace-for-president">Linda Lovelace For President</a> and <a href="https://marcwithac.bandcamp.com/album/losing-salt">Losing Salt</a>!
		I listened to the two of them on shuffle mode all day at work today.
		If you haven&apos;t already bought them yourself, I recommend doing so before you forever lose your chance to get the bonus albums.
		These two bonus albums are Linda Salt Ephemera and The Third Planned Slip (live 2009).
		I haven&apos;t gotten a chance to listen to them yet, but I&apos;m especially excited to hear Third Planned Slip (live 2009).
		It&apos;s obviously third in a series of live albums, of which I already have two.
		For some reason, I also think that I only have part of the first in the series, though I&apos;m likely mistaken.
	</p>
</section>
<section id="to-do">
	<h2>To-do list</h2>
	<ul>
		<li>
			<del>Buy <a href="https://marcwithac.bandcamp.com/album/linda-lovelace-for-president">Linda Lovelace For President</a> on striking, blue vinyl and/or <a href="https://marcwithac.bandcamp.com/album/losing-salt">Losing Salt</a> on salt-and-pepper-splatter vinyl before 2017-01-31 (<strong>*URGENT!*</strong>)</del>
		</li>
		<li>
			Acquire stuff for my new home:
			<ul>
				<li>
					A bed
				</li>
				<li>
					A bicycle
				</li>
				<li>
					A bicycle helmet
				</li>
				<li>
					A trash bin
				</li>
				<li>
					A recycling bin
				</li>
			</ul>
		</li>
		<li>
			Finish stabilizing <a href="https://git.volatile.ch./y.st./include.d/releases">include.d</a> and put out another release (low priority)
		</li>
	</ul>
</section>
<section id="general">
	<h2>General news</h2>
	<p>
		The credit union rejected my attempt to add myself as an authorized user of my credit card.
		Scrap.
		That said, action on the lost credit card from over a year ago is still pending.
		The credit union is quick to decline the issuance of a useful, secondary card, but they&apos;re slow to respond to the fact that my card is compromised.
		Joy.
		I had an idea though.
		What if only the address is verified by the merchant, and not the name?
	</p>
	<p>
		I logged back into my credit union credit card account to attempted to update my address.
		First, the website demanded that I change my password.
		Fine, whatever.
		It&apos;s a mild inconvenience, but nothing more.
		When I tried to change my address though, I hit a brick wall.
		I can see my address, but I can&apos;t touch it.
		Maybe my credit card address is tied to my main account&apos;s address?
		I tried logging in to my main credit union account (Why is the credit card even dealt with using a second website and second account?) and updating my address there.
		The update went smoothly.
		When I tried to verify the change from my credit card account though, I found that the credit card account website would no longer load.
		That stupid website seems to be down more often than not.
		So I took a chance, and tried to purchase the records using my newly-updated address and my real name not present on the card.
		It worked!
		So now, I have to wonder: why do I even need my Discover account?
	</p>
	<p>
		I&apos;ll have to update my name in my mailbox before the records arrive to reflect the new moniker I&apos;ve taken: Alex Yst.
		I don&apos;t know how long that I have, but it should be several days at least.
		I&apos;ve slipped a permanent marker and a bottle of correction fluid into my backpack, so when I go home to wash laundry, I can fix the name in the box.
		I&apos;ve also updated the address in my whois records of this website&apos;s domain.
	</p>
	<p>
		Partially to clear my head and partially to document things as I see them at the moment, I wrote up a draft of a letter to Discover.
		For me to actually send it, I&apos;d need to reword a few things, but it helped calm me to write it.
		If Discover does not take responsibility for the charge, I will likely cancel my account with them.
		If I do that, I&apos;ll probably update my letter to reflect any new information, as well as change some of the vague wording.
		For example, I&apos;d change &quot;my old registrar&quot; into the actual name of the registrar, a registrar that I avoid mentioning by name simply because any publicity is good publicity.
	</p>
<blockquote>
	<p>
		When I first applied for my Discover credit card, admittedly, it was because of a lapse in judgment.
		I don&apos;t mean that Discover credit cards are bad, just that my reason for getting one was bad.
		I did it because of a promotion on someone else&apos;s website.
		Simply applying was enough, I didn&apos;t need the card itself.
		I didn&apos;t even think that I&apos;d even be approved for the card.
	</p>
	<p>
		When the card arrived, I had already applied for a card that I was more likely to get, and had been approved for that.
		I started using both cards back and forth, making all of my purchases via credit card to try to build credit.
		That lasted for a while, but I found the value of more private transactions and started using cash for all in-person purchases.
		I continued to use both cards for online purchases for a short period, but I quickly found something that Discover offered and that my other card issuer didn&apos;t: the option to add authorized users.
		At this point, I started using my Discover credit card for all online purchases except for with merchants that didn&apos;t accept cards from Discover.
		I had a card under the name that I actually go by instead of under the name on my birth certificate, and it was awesome.
	</p>
	<p>
		During this time period, I also lost all of my passwords to everything due to a hard drive failure.
		I could no longer log into my domain registrar&apos;s website, so my domains were no longer of any value and needed to be canceled.
		I had no way to know what other services had me signed up for automatic payments, but I likewise had no way to access any of these services and, as such, needed to stop paying for all of them.
		I reported my Discover credit card as compromised to get the card number changed so that I could make the clean break that I needed.
	</p>
	<p>
		At some point though, Discover sent me an advertisement for opening up a chequing account.
		That seemed like a good idea, so I inquired as to what the features of such an account would be.
		However, Discover support refused to answer even the most basic questions about the account.
		They said that because I don&apos;t have telephone service and cannot telephone Discover support, Discover Web support won&apos;t help me even with the most basic questions that pertained to Discover chequing accounts in general, not even involving information from my specific account.
		Discover is discriminating against those of us that don&apos;t have telephone service without any valid reason.
		It made me consider canceling my Discover account on principle, but Discover still offered something that I didn&apos;t know how to replace: the opportunity to use my real name instead of the name on my birth certificate.
		So I kept my account.
	</p>
	<p>
		I later discovered that Discover was no longer allowing authorized users to be added without Social Security numbers being attached.
		Those aren&apos;t authorized users, those are <strong>*joint account holders*</strong>.
		I couldn&apos;t even update the information associated with my current authorized user, which was myself.
		I could continue using the card, but everything was locked in stone.
		When the card expired though, would it even be possible to renew it?
		This worried me, but I had no answers at the time.
	</p>
	<p>
		Still later, I found that Discover was allowing my old domain registrar to continue charging me, despite the card number having been changed over a year ago.
		The registrar didn&apos;t need the new number because they had some sort of authorization token for reoccurring charges or something.
		I tried to talk to the registrar about the situation and get them to stop charging me, but the greedy monsters would have none of that.
		They refused to cancel the domains and quit charging me.
	</p>
	<p>
		I filed a dispute against the latest charge from the registrar, and a credit to my account was applied right away.
		I was told that I needed to wait a month to make sure that the credit was permanent, as the registrar could still get the dispute nullified in that time.
		I also asked Discover to prevent future charges from the registrar by revoking their reoccurring charge authorization, but their response was vague and they wanted me to wait for the dispute to finalize before they would act.
		I waited with baited breath, and the time limit passed.
		Everything was fine, and hopefully the registrar would get the message and stop charging me!
		However, that wasn&apos;t the end of it.
		<strong>*After*</strong> the time period was passed, Discover reversed the credit.
		What the heck!?
		The dispute was supposed to have been finalized.
		Angry (mostly angry with the registrar, not Discover) and frustrated, but with no other option, I asked Discover (for the second time) to revoke the registrar&apos;s authorization to charge me.
		Discover responded that within a week, they&apos;d send me an email explaining the process of stopping payments to a merchant.
		This email never arrived, and I assumed that Discover had taken care of things as they should have.
	</p>
	<p>
		Now though, Discover has allowed another payment to my old domain registrar to go through!
		Again, what the heck, Discover!?
		I explained the situation to Discover, asking (for the third time) that they block charges made by the domain registrar and asking that Discover reimburse me for the charge, as Discover had not blocked the charge as they said they would.
		This time, they confirmed that they&apos;d block charged made by PayPal Pro for a period longer than a year (which would allow all the domains to expire as they should), provided any charges made were not greater than one hundred dollars.
		Perfect.
		I couldn&apos;t afford domains that cost \$100 $a[USD] per year anyway, so the blocked range was perfectly functional.
		Did this mean that my old registrar was using PayPal Pro to charge me then?
		Would this block other merchants that used PayPal Pro as well?
		I was unsure, but at the time, I wasn&apos;t too worried.
		I&apos;d try to go a year without PayPal; PayPal is horrid in every way anyway.
		However, what Discover completely ignored was my request that they take responsibility for the charge that they had allowed to happen clearly against my authorization.
	</p>
	<p>
		I plead my case, and asked once more that Discover refund the charge that was clearly their own fault.
		Discover is now reviewing the case and has not yet made a decision.
		However, even if they <strong>*do*</strong> rule in my favor, who&apos;s to say that they won&apos;t change their mind like they did with the initial dispute?
		For that matter, what if they fail to actually block the charges from my old registrar again?
		I can&apos;t keep paying for these domains that I can&apos;t even access.
		Is it even a good idea to continue trusting Discover with my money?
	</p>
	<p>
		Today, 2017-01-30, I discovered through experimentation that I can use my other credit card, the one that I don&apos;t use any more but still have, to make purchases using a name not on the card.
		That means that I have all the advantages of my Discover credit card, but without Discover to mishandle my money and without Discover to refuse to provide even the most basic information to people such as me that have no telephone service.
		At this point, I have to wonder: why do I even need my Discover credit card any more?
	</p>
	</blockquote>
	<p>
		SafeLink sent me a worrying $a[SMS] message today:
	</p>
	<blockquote>
		<p>
			URGENT Safelink MSG: After 04-01-2017 you&apos;ll no longer receive free minutes.
			Call 1-800-4442 or visit www.rspf.org for more info.
			Reply STOP to End Messages
		</p>
	</blockquote>
	<p>
		Of course, I tried the domain name as a Web address first, but that just redirected to an Oregon government website that had no relevant information visible.
		Reluctantly, I made the <a href="tel:+18004442">telephone call</a>.
		However, I just got that sound that means that the telephone on the other end is off the hook.
		Lovely.
		I next dialed <a href="tel:611;phone-context=+1">611</a> to see if that would go through.
		It did, and I worked my way through one of those annoying tree structures where you hit all the numbers.
		However, it wanted me to enter the telephone number of the line that I was calling about, which I of course wouldn&apos;t know offhand.
		I use the thing as little as possible, after all.
		The system didn&apos;t give me enough time to look up the number, and it hung up on me.
		After finding the number, I had to traverse the tree again.
		I was put on hold, then spoke with a representative.
		It was difficult to make out what they were saying, which is another reason that I can&apos;t stand when companies refuse to be contacted via non-telephone methods.
		Had this been a Web chat or an email conversation, there would have been no difficulty.
		In any case, the representative didn&apos;t seem to know what they were talking about and I missed probably at least a third of what they said.
		They asked if I&apos;d made any telephone calls this month.
		Thankfully, making telephone calls annoys me so much that I record every wretched call that I have to make here in my journal.
		I was able to confirm that I at least made a call on 2017-01-10 and 2017-01-11.
		I may have made other calls, but I stopped looking after finding those two.
		The representative confirmed that my service wouldn&apos;t be shut off.
		But if it wouldn&apos;t be shut off, why did I receive that $a[SMS] message?
		I feel like I&apos;m going to have to try to get help on 2017- ...
	</p>
	<p>
		As I write this, I realized something.
		The date format in the $a[SMS] message threw me off and I thought that that was the first day of the coming month: 2017-02-01.
		It&apos;s not though, it&apos;s 2017-04-01.
		What the heck is going on?
		This isn&apos;t about my service getting shut off in two days, it&apos;s about my service getting shut off in two months.
		Something is going on, but there&apos;s time.
		I wonder if SafeLink is getting shut down or if new orders from Trump are disbanding or limiting the Lifeline program.
		Others might be seeing this problem too, so it may start coming up in search results if I wait for a bit.
		As for now, there&apos;s a report that several Lifeline carriers that are experiencing changes recently.
		Five have dropped out of the business, two have merged, and one no longer offers service in one particular state.
		(I&apos;d link to the report, but it&apos;s behind a CloudFlare $a[CAPTCHA] wall, so I refuse to guide people to that website by providing a clickable hyperlink.)
		Something big is going down.
	</p>
	<p>
		I had hoped to get more coursework done today, but that didn&apos;t happen.
		I considered bringing my textbook to work to read on my breaks, but I need to be able to effectively take notes because of the <a href="/en/coursework/CS1101/#Unit1">learning journal</a> assignment this week.
		I&apos;ll have to work on it tomorrow while I wash laundry.
		Ugh.
		The laptop is one more thing to have to carry.
		That said, it&apos;ll give me something to do while a do laundry, which is beneficial.
	</p>
	<p>
		I&apos;ve been considering the possibility of making the Floraverse character that I want to create a drop.
		It would allow for some bending of the usual rules, potentially giving me a way to put all the qualities that I want the character to have into this singular character.
		I had thought that my best bet would be a Psi-based drop.
		I don&apos;t know exactly what &quot;psi&quot; is supposed to be, and Web searches weren&apos;t helping, but I assume it to have to do with the mind.
		I never really had time to write about this though, and it hadn&apos;t lead to much of a breakthrough in the planning yet.
		Today at work though, I came up with a better idea: a Crystal-based drop!
		The Crystal element, at least as used by me, would be a hidden reference to something else.
		However, this element also gives me a pretty nice hand to work with.
		For starters, for a drop to initially transform from their species-based form into their drop-form (a one-way process), they need high exposure to their drop element.
		I need a reason for my character to have been exposed to that element.
		I can have them be a sea dragon!
		Sea dragons work with magic crystals as their main method of performing magic, so their exposure to the Crystal element is all but assured even very early in life.
		As basically a mutated sea dragon, I can have them retain some of their sea dragon qualities without making the character too implausible.
		Secondly though, a character&apos;s abilities and personalities often shape or are shaped by their elemental affinities in ways not directly related to the element, but more poetically linked to the element.
		For example, one of my character&apos;s abilities could be enhanced clarity (crystal clarity?), which would prevent the effects of mind-, memory-, and perception-altering magic from taking hold.
		I think that I now have the base that I want to work with for building my character, though I won&apos;t be able to work on this really for quite a while.
		Too much is going on right now.
	</p>
	<p>
		I&apos;ve been worrying about how to get my W-2 from my Coos Bay job.
		The employer&apos;s website doesn&apos;t allow me to update my address on file.
		I was desperately hoping that the mail forward from Coos Bay to my mother&apos;s house would last long enough to get the W-2 to me, and I was going to get a new forward from both the Coos Bay house and my mother&apos;s house to my home as soon as I had the key to the mailbox, but that didn&apos;t work out.
		As son as I had the key, I learned that PayPal was being nasty again and I had to deal with that.
		I&apos;m still dealing with that, in fact.
		Today though, I received the W-2 in the mail to my mother&apos;s place without the usual forwarding label that the post office applies.
		Creepy.
		They figured out where I moved to without my having been able to tell them!
		They&apos;re watching me.
		Or more precisely, they got that information from someone else that <strong>*actually is*</strong> watching me.
		In this case, I&apos;m not complaining.
		I really do need that tax document.
		However, it just goes to show that we&apos;re all under constant monitoring.
	</p>
	<p>
		My <a href="/a/canary.txt">canary</a> still sings the tune of freedom and transparency.
	</p>
</section>
END
);
